Friday, July 4, 2014

RETURN TO MITCHELL PARK DOMES

After being out of town for a couple of weeks, I found my way back to the Mitchell Park Domes a few days ago. For all of the shots that I took, I didn't retain many.

As soon as I entered the show dome, which features changing exhibits, I realized that I needed my telephoto lens. Right in the middle of the dome and distant from any place where I could position my tripod were two large and attractive blossoms. So I ran back to my car to retrieve my other two lenses and wound up using all three lenses during the session. Here is a shot of one of the large blossoms.

The background was a little busy, but the flower was gorgeous. This was shot at an aperture of f/5.

Here is another flower that I wound up shooting from the side in order to eliminate some background distractions that would otherwise have cluttered up the image. A little odd and not quite as sharp as I would have liked, but I liked the "hairiness" of the stem and curved leaf on the left side. I was also happy with the backlighting of the petals.

Here is a cactus in the Desert Dome that was in bloom. I liked the beaded texture of the plant's body and the translucence of the blossom's petals. I had underexposed the shot and was able to darken the background further in post processing.

Finally, here are a couple of larger leaves that I have photographed before.

I liked how the leaves, from the same plant, are exhibiting different shades of green. The bright sun helped to bring out the leaves' textures. Shot at f/11 to keep the more distant leaf in acceptable focus.

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ABOUT ME

I currently have two blogs, SKEPTIC PHOTO, at http://skepticphoto.blogspot.com, and SKEPTIC REFLECTIONS, at http://skepticreflections.blogspot.com. I am hopeful that anyone who investigates either blog will find something of interest. I welcome any respectful comments and will try to respond to each.